Assessment and Rating of Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls

Download or read book Assessment and Rating of Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls written by Noel Janacek and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls have been increasingly utilized in the United States since 1972 and in Texas since 1979. MSE walls provide earth retention for commercial, industrial and transportation projects throughout Texas. Within the transportation industry, the traditional design life of MSE walls is 75 years, with new projects requiring 100 year design life. The millions of square feet of existing MSE walls are generally less than half of the anticipated design life, making identifying and assessing the existing wall inventory a significant asset management component for optimizing maintenance expenditures. This thesis proposes and applies a system that assesses and rates MSE walls based on as-built design assessment, physical condition, safety impacts, and owner defined elements. The program developed in this thesis has been generally tailored to application in transportation infrastructure with MSE walls having greater than two years of service, founded in and retaining both cohesive and cohesionless soils.